Josie and the Pussycats (2001) on Netflix
Josie McCoy, Melody Valentine and Valerie Brown play in a struggling Riverdale band. Record executive Wyatt Frame signs them to MegaRecords and renames the group Josie and the Pussycats.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb5.7/1027,262 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes53%
Trailer
Plot summary
DuJour, a boy band signed to MegaRecords, confront their label executive Wyatt Frame about a strange backing track on their new single. He parachutes out of the plane and lands outside the town of Riverdale, where he begins searching for a replacement act. In a music store, DuJour's song draws a strong response from the young crowd, and a listener who dislikes it is taken away. Wyatt meets Josie McCoy, the singer and guitarist; Melody Valentine, the drummer; and Valerie Brown, the bassist. Their manager Alexander Cabot accepts Wyatt's offer of a record deal. In New York City, Wyatt renames the group Josie and the Pussycats, and chief executive Fiona explains to government representatives a scheme to hide messages in pop music that push teenagers to buy products.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Josie and the Pussycats (2001)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Maggie Gyllenhaal and Zooey Deschanel both read for Josie, and directors Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont wanted Deschanel until the studio refused to cast an unknown. Beyoncé, Aaliyah and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes auditioned for Valerie, with Lopes keen enough to read twice.
- Rachael Leigh Cook was baffled to be handed one of the title roles, saying she could not sing at all and did not play guitar. The producers had remembered her from her audition for the lead in Kaplan and Elfont's earlier film Can't Hardly Wait.
- Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo sang for Cook on the soundtrack, and although none of the three actresses played on the records they spent months at a "band camp" with the rock group Powder, learning their characters' instruments so the performances would look real.
- The blizzard of brand names in almost every scene, from Starbucks and Target to Motorola, Gatorade and Pizza Hut, was a running joke about the film's own subject of subliminal advertising. None of it was paid placement; the filmmakers put the brands in themselves.
- A year after the film flopped, Deborah Kaplan met Bono, who told her he loved it. Harry Elfont said the U2 singer "totally got it", and that until social media caught up with the picture the pair consoled themselves with the thought that at least Bono had understood it.
- The PG-13 certificate caused friction with licenser Archie Comics, so a "Family-Friendly" PG cut, with a great deal of the profanity and sexual references removed, was issued on video alongside the theatrical version.
